For all of the emotions usually equated with death, Dwight “Heavy D” Myers’ funeral was billed as a celebration of the artist’s life. As such, it could not  and would not  be such a sad affair. As the mayor-elect of Heavy’s hometown of Mount Vernon, New York put it, “We are not here because Heavy D died. We are here because Heavy D lived.”

What became clear, from within the two overflowing halls of Mount Vernon’s Grace Baptist Church, was that Heavy D had touched countless lives  particularly in the hip-hop and African-American communities. Jay-Z, Usher, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, John Legend, Denzel Washington and Queen Latifah were spotted walking in; a list at one of the security check-ins included the names of Sony Music’s Chairman/CEO Doug Morris and Doug E. Fresh. Three Mount Vernon police officers sat down the row from BET President Stephen Hill. A woman and her daughter held a VIP pass from a concert Heavy D must have performed years ago, just as a cab driver had shown off photos of himself and Heavy from their shared high school days. “There’s stories on every corner of this city, of people he helped,” said the pastor, without exaggeration.